Home » Instant Pot Recipes » Instant Pot American Goulash

Instant Pot American Goulash

This Easy Instant Pot Goulash is a one pot meal. Ground beef, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, macaroni and melted cheese!

A CLASSIC MACARONI DISH

This Easy Instant Pot Goulash is a one pot meal. Ground beef, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic and macaroni noodles. All topped with cheese! Also called Slumgullion, American Chop Suey or Johnny Marzetti (depending on where you’re from.) 🙂

Instant Pot American Goulash with ground beef in a serving bowl with garlic bread.

WHAT SIZE PRESSURE COOKER DO I NEED?

For this recipe, I am using an 6.5-quart pressure cooker. It makes a lot! You can freeze any leftovers. Don’t have an electric pressure cooker? No problem! Check out my Stovetop American Goulash recipe.

fully cooked goulash inside an instant pot.

CAN I MAKE GOULASH ALL IN ONE POT?

My favorite thing about this recipe is it is made all in one pot! Who doesn’t love a good, filling, comforting one pot meal? I am all about reducing the dirty dish pile! A couple of tips: use lean ground beef. Most lean ground beef doesn’t need to be drained of excess grease and will keep you from dirtying up a strainer. Use fresh garlic. There are so few ingredients in this dish that fresh garlic really deepens that homemade taste! 

a spoon scooping up American Goulash out of an instant pot.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)

  • lean ground beef
  • small onion
  • green pepper
  • garlic cloves
  • can diced tomatoes (with Italian seasoning)
  • spaghetti sauce
  • water
  • macaroni noodles
  • Italian seasoning
  • shredded cheddar cheese
lean ground beef, small onion, green pepper, garlic cloves, can diced tomatoes (with Italian seasoning), spaghetti sauce, water, macaroni noodles, Italian seasoning, shredded cheddar cheese.

HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT AMERICAN GOULASH:

In an 6.5-quart electric pressure cooker, press the sauté option and put on high. Brown and crumble the ground beef along with the diced onion and green pepper.

browning ground beef, onion, green pepper in an 8-quart pressure cooker.

If the beef produces a lot of grease, then drain. If not, then there is no need. Stir in minced garlic. Turn off sauté setting.

fresh pressed garlic.

Pour in diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, water and Italian seasoning. Finally, stir in macaroni noodles.

all Instant Pot Goulash ingredients in an 8-quart electric pressure cooker.

Seal the lid, then turn the pressure release valve to “SEAL”

Instant Pot electric pressure cook.er lid showing the "sealing" setting

Set pressure cooker on high for 5 minutes. Once finished, do a quick pressure release (carefully turn the pressure release valve to “VENT”.)

Ninja Foodi XL pressure cooker.

Open lid and stir mixture. Want to take it over the top? Add some shredded cheese on top. Close lid for a couple of minutes to allow the cheese some time to melt.

melted Colby jack cheese on top of finished Instant Pot American Goulash.

Serve in a bowl topped with more shredded cheddar cheese or grated Parmesan cheese.

Instant Pot Goulash served in a bowl with garlic bread.

CRAVING MORERECIPES?

Instant Pot American Goulash

Instant Pot American Goulash

This Easy Instant Pot Goulash is a one pot meal. Ground beef, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic and macaroni noodles. All topped with cheese!
4.93 from 41 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Pressure build: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
  • 1 green pepper, diced (optional)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (with basil, garlic, oregano) (do not drain)
  • 24 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 16 ounce box macaroni noodles (uncooked) (3 cups)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • shredded cheddar cheese and/ or grated Parmesan cheese (for topping)

Instructions

  • In a 6.5-quart electric pressure cooker, press the sauté option and put on high.
  • Brown and crumble 1 pound lean ground beef along with 1 small yellow onion, finely diced and 1 green pepper, diced.
  • If the beef produces a lot of grease, then drain. If not, then there is no need. 
  • Stir in 3 cloves garlic, minced. Turn off sauté setting. 
  • Pour in 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (with basil, garlic, oregano), 24 ounce jar spaghetti sauce, 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • Finally, stir in 16 ounce box macaroni noodles (uncooked). Seal the lid, then turn the pressure release valve to "Sealing"
  • Set pressure cooker on high for 5 minutes. Once finished, do a quick pressure release (carefully turn the pressure release valve to venting)
  • Open lid and stir mixture. Taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve in a bowl and top with shredded cheddar cheese and/ or grated Parmesan cheese

Notes

  • Serve with a salad and garlic bread.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 320kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 8g | Sodium: 652mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




53 Comments

    1. Hey Ron! I haven’t tested this any other way so I’m honestly not sure. You’ll have to play around with it to see. Yes, you’d need to cut back on the liquid but you still need enough liquid so the instant pot will come up to pressure. I’m afraid this will need to be a bit of trial and error on your part. 🙂

  1. 5 stars
    I love this recipe! There were absolutely no leftovers, but I do have one issue. My noodles came out fairly soggy. (I didn’t pre-cook them). Do you think using a little less water might help me? Thank you!

  2. Hi 🙂 I live overseas and I can only find canned diced tomatoes plain (no oregano, basil or garlic added). How much of each spice do you recommend me to add to come close to what the pre-made can would have? Any advice would help, thanks!

  3. 5 stars
    Thank you for sharing this, just got my ninja so still learning, just made this OUTSTANDING, my family all loved it

  4. 5 stars
    OMG – this is SO good! My husband had 4 bowls on the first sitting and now it’s his request for dinner frequently. Easy, delicious and makes a trough!

  5. 5 stars
    My family and I love this recipe. I make it at least twice a month. We add sour cream individually and it turns out great. Tastes just like mom used to make. Thank you for sharing!!!

  6. 5 stars
    Have made this several times now. Would not change a thing! It’s so easy to make, so easy to clean up afterwards, and it tastes great!

  7. 5 stars
    Very good recipe. I keep precooked frozen ground beef on hand, so this recipe was assembled in a matter of minutes and ready for the table in less than 30 min. Has anyone tried freezing the leftovers?

  8. 5 stars
    Thank you for this recipe!! My mom used to fix this goulash and I lost my recipe during moving. This is the best goulash I have ever eaten.Just like my grandmother ‍ Such memories!!!!

  9. Hi. I’m going to make this tonite. I have an 8 Quart. Do I have to change anything to adjust for the bigger size Instapot?

  10. 5 stars
    I love goulash and so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. I only wanted to use half of the pasta though because I didn’t need to make an entire batch. I followed the recipe except I just cut all of the ingredients in half except for the jar of sauce and can of tomatoes. I also omitted the green pepper because I didn’t have one and I added a tablespoon of sugar to my sauce because I like to cut down the bitterness from the tomatoes. I filled the tomato can 3/4 of the way with water and added that to the sauce. I added half of a box of elbow noodles and cooked on Manual for 4 minutes with a quick release. Once it was done I stirred it and topped it with parm cheese. It was delicious, quick and I have plenty of leftovers. Thanks for the great recipe.

  11. 5 stars
    I live in a 23ft travel trailer and I don’t have a lot of room how could I make this for 2 ppl I love all your recipes I was in fla but we moved out west to Arizona ok thank you for another great recipe

  12. I’m just getting used to my instant pot. It’s an 8 quart. What is that tool you used to sauté the meat green peppers and onions? I’m not much of a cook either…

  13. This looks amazing and so easy! Will use my instapot. How do you like the Ninja Foodi? I want to get one but waiting a little bit for the price to come down/work out any kinks.

    1. Hi Janet, so far so good with the ninja Foodi. It took some getting used to but now I enjoy it. It’s heavier than the Instant Pot for sure. My inner bowl also came damaged so I had to get a replacement for that. Now that I am comfortable with it and how to use it, I really do like it! 🙂

  14. 5 stars
    I made this for dinner tonight. It was super fast and easy and even though I forgot to add the diced tomatoes it still came out pretty good. Instead of using water I used chicken stock though, only because I had about 3/4 of a carton in the fridge I needed to use up. Also, since I used elbow mac I only set it for 3 minutes because that was 1/2 the cook time listed on the box. Thanks for the recipe.

  15. 5 stars
    I just made this and it is awesome! One Pot for everything! No dirty pots and pans! I’m new to the Instant Pot cooking, but loving it.

  16. 5 stars
    I have a 6 quart instant pot, so I used about three quarters of the macaroni and cut the water down to 2 cups. Turned out perfect! This is definitely a recipe that I will use often.